China's biggest national news agency announced plans yesterday to launch its global English-language television news network this week, part of efforts to expand the country's influence abroad.

Starting on Saturday, China Xinhua News Network Corp (CNC) will begin trial broadcasts of its English TV service around the clock, including news segments, feature stories, weather updates and special bulletins, the official Xinhua news agency said. The channel is officially set to launch on 1 July.

"CNC will offer an alternative source of information for a global audience and aims to promote peace and development by interpreting the world in a global perspective," said Xinhua president, Li Congjun.

In recent years China has announced multibillion-dollar plans to raise the profile of state media abroad by expanding Xinhua, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) and the Communist party newspaper, People's Daily.

In January, Xinhua began broadcasting TV programs in Chinese in Asian and select European countries. Last year CCTV began a 24-hour channel airing in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, reaching a total population of nearly 300 million people.

All three state media outlets enjoy top-level party support and funding, along with virtual monopolies in certain sectors of their domestic markets. Despite China's rapid economic growth and rising global influence, it has not experienced a freeing of the media. China has retained its authoritarian one-party political system with strict limits on freedom of speech and civil and political life.